Trade Monopoly unavailable on maps with only two trading posts

:arrow_forward: GAME INFORMATION

  • BUILD #: 100.12.6159.0
  • PLATFORM: Steam
  • OS: Windows 10

:arrow_forward: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

On maps with only two trading posts, the Trade Monopoly button will say you need 2/2 trading posts to initiate it (which is normal), but will remain greyed out even if you do have both trading posts

:arrow_forward: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

  • 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)

:arrow_forward: REPRODUCTION STEPS

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Start a skirmish game on a map with only two trading posts
  2. Build a trading post on both locations
  3. Try to initiate the Trade Monopoly

:arrow_forward: EXPECTED RESULT

The Trade Monopoly countdown should begin

:arrow_forward: ACTUAL RESULT

Instead, you realize you have to suck it up and actually beat the enemy

If you need to control 67% of the trading posts, and you control 2/2, you effectively meet the criteria; you hold the monopoly. Even if there was only one trading post on the map, whoever controlled it should be able to initiate the countdown, like King of the Hill from AoE 2. If they coded it around specific numbers instead of percentages, it’s still a bug due to poor design

Tournament have been made around King of the Hill, a great many people love it, and it’s a bug because by definition, a monopoly means owning the majority of something, not a certain amount. 2/2 or 1/1 is 100%, which I’m pretty sure counts as the majority. What we have here is simply bad coding

On the contrary, trade monopolies is how turtlers win, since this game doesn’t have wonders or relics, and since it’s so easy to make artillery and/or high-siege units armies and absolutely demolish fortifications, if anything it’d be more balanced if turtlers didn’t have to get out of their comfort zone too much to spread all over the map and capture 6/8 trading posts; t’would give 'em more of a chance

Yeah, it’s super easy to drown in resources in this game thanks to factories, shipments and whatnot, but that doesn’t change trade monopolies is the only way those folks can win, so it’d be nice if it worked consistently